Heavy Gear III Development Underway

Curved surfaces, skinned characters some of the new features for third installment.

By IGN Staff

Although Heavy Gear II has not yet been released into stores, details are emerging about the next installment in the series, Heavy Gear III.

As was reported last year, members of the original MechWarrior 2 team left Activision's internal development studios and were set up in their own development company by Activision. That company, currently located in Culver City, is called Savage Entertainment. It's expected that it will relocate to Marina Del Rey within a few months.

Sources close to the project tell us that Heavy Gear III will feature a brand new engine, called the Ice Engine. This engine purportedly has a number of advantages over current technology--namely curved surface rendering, "skinning" for the creatures and characters in the game, as well as larger, more detailed environments and models with more polygons than other games in this genre.

Activision is expected to formally unveil the full game at this year's E3 show, including the full title of the game.

Meanwhile don't forget about Heavy Gear II. Today Activision will post the opening movie for the game on its web site. The movie will show some stolen 'Gears' (a synonym for mechs) being stolen by the Colonial Earth Forces.